Mother of Murdered Israeli Woman: 'No One Has Invented the Words for This'

TEL AVIV, Israel — Ahuva Maisel says she felt a sense of relief when she learned that her daughter Adi, 21, had been found dead — instead of taken hostage by Hamas.

For days, Adi had been missing, after fleeing the Supernova trance music festival. The last time Ahuva spoke to her daughter was 7:42 in the morning, when Ahuva called to say that she was driving away in her car, trying to find the exit. She and her best friend gave a lift to several others, who decided to continue on foot.

They survived. Adi did not.

“No one has invented words for this,” Ahuva told me.

We met in the heart of Tel Aviv, where a local law firm has donated its offices to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a cente that helps families of Israeli hostages and missing people. Other companies in the same building — notably Lockheed Martin — have also stepped up to help.

The center offers counseling, advice, and legal representation. It also encourages journalists to spend time with the anxious families, to hear their stories and share their perspective with the world — not just inside Israel.

The center is bustling from morning to night. While I stood there, a delegation of Chabad rabbis arrived from the U.S, Canada, and Australia to offer support. They met with the family of Bar Kupershtein, 22, who is among the hostages being held by Hamas in Canada.

Some families were arriving for the first time and did not want to speak to the media. But others did. Moran Cohen Avisar told me about her missing brother, Ben-Benyamin Cohen, 27, who was also at the rave. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Moran told me about Ben’s sweet nature, his big heart, his love of helping others. She said she would be at peace with whatever his fate turned out to be — whether hostage, or dead: she just wanted to know. “Our lives are on hold,” she said.

While she hopes he comes back, she observed that all the friends he loved — and everyone he went to the music festival with — are dead. “If he will return, his friends won’t be here.”

Asked what Israel should do next, Moran told me that what Israel needs the most is unity — whatever the military decides to do in Gaza.

Ahuva told me that her experience had changed her mind about Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians. She used to be in favor of peace. There was, she said, a “corner in our heart” that believed the Palestinians were basically good people who would turn out to want the same thing Israelis did.

Now, she says Israel and the world must destroy Islamic fundamentalism — the central idea of Hamas, whose charter she read for the first time. It is not an Israeli problem, or a Jewish one; it affects the whole world, she said.

She describes Adi, a navy veteran and javelin thrower who was also very beautiful. She told me she had to embrace the life she enjoyed with Adi, rather than dwelling on what would have and should have been.

Outside, in the twilight, other relatives of hostages began a procession down Kaplan Street.

Once the site of demonstrations against judicial reform, it is now a place of silent protest for someone — anyone — to release the hostages. No one yet knows how.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.